After experimenting with a new Moroccan Chicken recipe the family requested I make the “original” version that dates back to the early days of Madison House Chef. Knowing that I wanted to blog the recipe I went in search of my original copy.
However, I couldn’t remember it’s original source. A website? A newspaper clipping? A cookbook?
What to do??
Oh the weather outside is frightful … 102 degrees. But the fire is so delightful … in the BBQ grill at least. And since we’ve no place to go … at least not until it’s time to pick up Gregory … Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Don’t I wish!
Okay. I admit that the above may seem like a non sequitur, but hang with me for a moment, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Breakfast time at our house frequently includes laughter and creativity but these pancakes added tasty frivolity.
Continue reading "Playing with My Food: Alphabet Pancakes" »
Cooking red cabbage reminds me of my grandmother’s dinner table with a vague recollection people, family probably, eating bone in pork chops.
The warm savory cabbage comes through my family of origin as a German food – probably inspired by the peasants for whom simple meals of winter crops that would last through extended cold snaps was the norm.
These potatoes are delicious! A great snack, a fabulous side, these are good anytime.
Continue reading "Sweet Potato Fries, baked (with photos)" »
This is a reworking of our original version of Tortilla Soup. This recipe is incredibly flavorful and since it’s an easily modifiable recipe, the ‘heat’ is determined by your preference.
Enjoy my homemade tortilla strips in this luscious soup.
Biscuits are a real hit in this household. They’re great with Sausage Gravy, fried chicken, or just for breakfast with butter or jelly.
When I make biscuits I generally use Bisquick (a la biscuits in photo) – it’s quick, easy and is what I generally use for pancakes thus it’s usually in the pantry. And yes, most often I do them in drop biscuit form, again for the sake of expediency.
Pure Comfort Food! Indeed, this recipe is not low fat, not low calorie, not low anything for that matter, but the essence of comfort food is to discount any nutritious value and soak in the comfort value.
This recipe is one of those things I remember my grandmother making in a big cast iron frying pan. She taught my dad, who I watched for years make this same gravy, and then in time he taught me.
Continue reading "Sausage Gravy and Biscuits – The Joy of Cooking by Sight, Smell and Taste" »
This recipe is an adaptation from an old cookbook titled Low-Fat and Luscious (an old BHGardens book). This tenderloin is quite easy to prepare.
Marvelously, this pleasing herb stuffed loin is also both low fat and low calorie. The entire assembled tenderloin is 810 calories. If the pork is to serve 4, then that’s only 200 calories per serving.
Continue reading "Herb Stuffed Pork Tenderloin (with photos)" »
These are some of the most delicious chocolate cupcakes ever. There’s Guinness in the chocolate cupcake batter, a ganache of dark, bittersweet chocolate and Bailey’s that lies in wait in the midst of the cake like a hidden treasure, and the whole thing is topped with butter cream frosting laced with more Bailey’s. Mmmm….mmm…mmmm! These could be a new go to dessert for a less formal meal.
Don’t waste the turkey carcass! Combined with water and a few stray vegetables, this is a gold mine of flavor and the basis for Soup Stock which is the beginning of delicious turkey and veg soup.
The day after Thanksgiving means leftovers and in this household that means turkey soup; this soup can be made entirely from the “leftovers” from Thanksgiving dinner.
Chicken and rice soup ladled over an extra spoonful of rice.
It’s soup time of year again (read: cooler and wet though not cold as per up north) and I’ve had a taste for chicken and rice soup and thus put this recipe together. The idea for searing the chicken before putting it into the pot came from a CIA cookbook that I was thumbing through not long ago. I hadn’t seen any recipes previously that do so, but I figured it was worth a try. It seemed to add a little extra flavor due in part to the “flavor bits” that adhere to the bottom of the pan while searing.
Yikes! I cooked too many spaghetti noodles and there’s nothing else on our upcoming family menu that includes pasta. Ordinarily, I might put pasta in my daughter’s bento for a day or two, but we have a long weekend with no school on Monday.
I’m going to try to freeze the noodles. It’s a stretch for me, really, to put something like this in the freezer because outside of something that I ‘m going to put into a crock pot (roladen, ragu, stock) I’m not an avid freezer-er.
Did it work??? Read on ...
When we lived in North Dakota a woman named Betty Lou made the hands down, best, (should be) award winning rhubarb dessert ever. It was tart, yet sweet and the shortbread cookie style crust was buttery and flaky. We enjoyed it several times at her home and at potluck dinners -- she always took home a clean dish as there was never a single bite left. When I asked her about the recipe, she handed me a yellowed newspaper clipping that had been hand edited to double the recipe. I asked for a pen and paper to write down the information. "No, no. Just take it. I know how it's done," she replied. Once home I immediately attached it to a recipe card and covered it in plastic, knowing that this would be a family heirloom. It is!
This Old Fashioned Banana Muffin recipe is one that has been in our family at least 3 generations and I while I could likely mix these from memory I frequently pull out the recipe -- mostly for the sake of nostalgia. Interestingly, the recipe as I have it written contains no mixing directions, oven temperature or cooking time. It's handwritten (more accurately, scribbled) in short abbreviation style on a crinkled pink envelope sent from a magazine I haven't read since college. There are scrawls and scratches on the right hand side that faintly show the ratio when one has 8 bananas. The envelope/recipe is splattered in 3 places and at the top of the paper is a 2 line Christmas list for my Dad.
Having finally photographed the Pasta alla Carbonara recipe, I've updated the original post.
This link: Pasta alla Carbonara will redirect to the full recipe with photos. Enjoy!
This afternoon we drove up to my Mom and Dad's to surprise them -- they were. For supper tonight Ken and I made Carbonara for the 8 of us. Gregory has been craving it as his after-procedure comfort food and we decided to share it with the whole family.
A number of years ago I checked out of the library the book In Tuscany, a cookbook, photo journal by Frances Mayes. I checked it out again...and again...and again. We moved, and I checked it out of the library in our new town...twice. Why, you ask? For the Ragu recipe! The dish instantly found it's way to the top ten list of favorite family foods (even GDG ate it).
FINALLY, I checked out the book one more time and actually took the time to write down the recipe. I place it here on my blog as a Madison House Chef recommendation and as a permanent home ... yes, so that I don't have to check the book out of the library again. LOL
Some time ago my mother brought a rice cooker into our home. Really, Mom, a rice cooker? Afsani taught us how to make rice on the stove top with a diaper to slowly absorb the moisture.
I stand corrected and everyone may now commence with "I told you so."
[image from article]
Scott Gold wrote a deliciously hilarious piece, When the Chef is Trying to Kill You, about his eating experience in Portland, OR. He ordered a jelly donut with foie gras, or maybe it's foie gras with a jelly donut. Nevertheless, I'm still debating whether or not I'd order/eat it. I adore donuts and am quite fond of foie gras, but together...?
There's no question about whether or not my husband would eat it. It's a YES!
I would however be very open to the poutine (french fries with cheese and gravy) with foie gras served at Au Pied de Cochon.
Last night we had mashed potatoes covered with meatballs and onion gravy. Comfort food!
On Saturday, as I wrote my homily incidentally which happens to be a food text, I rolled and cooked 442 meatballs. Literally. I counted them as I rolled them and placed them onto pans of 100.
Taste tests conclude that the meatballs taste delicious. I didn't realize until well into the mixing process that I was making them a little different than usual. I did not add the pork and I used a little leaner meat. If meatballs can be "healthy"... no, not healthy... "lower in fat" ... yes, that's it ... Again, if meatballs can be 'lower in fat' then these qualify. They taste delicious, the flavor is lighter, and they are less greasy. It's a slightly different flavor than previously, but equally yummy.
This batch, many of which will be frozen, will hold us for a while!
By the way, I found the original recipe, which had been hiding between two cards in my recipe box, and it wasn't from Auntie Weeza, but from Mom's friend Carol Duncan, 1968. Oh how retro!
Since the opening of Aguilar's Meat Market, I've been eying the ox tail and wondering what to do with this 'non-traditional' beef piece. One day in the midst of a food conversation I mentioned to my mom that I was interested in trying ox tail -- she proceeded to tell me that my grandmother used to make ox tail stew. Go figure. Thus once again channeling my inner Kraut, I ventured into research and study of what makes an edible ox tail. The result follows -- I admit that the final product was tasty and certainly edible, but further research and another try will one day be on the docket.
This soup is quite good (Ken: B Denise: B) and a nice cross between minestrone and regular veggie soup. It's essentially from another recipe in the Soup Bible. Another good way to sneak veggie servings into the daily menu.
Continue reading "Soup of the Day: Italian Vegetable Soup" »
Having decided that meatloaf just didn't seem to be the meal I wanted to remember as our last of 2008 I went to the store and picked up some Johnsonville sausage and a bit of ground pork. Channeling my inner 1970s hostess the meatballs began to cook I thought "it smells like a holiday." I remember my mom making mini italian meatballs (aka cocktail meatballs). She plunked them into a pan with onion soup mix and water to keep them moist and hot until we ate them (at the party, of course) with BBQ sauce. Delicious.
Here's my version... one based on her recipe whose origin I don't know. Mom? Where did the recipe come from? I guess: Auntie Weeza.
For a small batch (10-12 dozen)
1.5 lbs fresh ground beef
1 lb fresh ground pork
1 pkg sausage (mild; 5 Johnsonville size sausages)
1 pkg of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix, dry
1/2 a container of Italian bread crumbs (I have no clue how much... a cup?)
2 eggs
Place all ingredients into the bowl and mix together thoroughly with your hands.
Roll into 1 inch balls
Place in 350 degree electric frying pan. Cook on one side until a 'crust' forms and they roll over easily to the uncooked side. You know it's time to turn them when the cooked color of the meat reaches about 1/3+ of the meatball. Roll them over and cook the other side. There is no timing here -- just cook them until they are 'done' and no longer pink. This is the one and only time I condone well done beef, but the pork and sausage are in there too thus I'm being safe.
Drain on a paper towel (or paper grocery bag). Put into a serving dish. Eat with a toothpick.
These freeze FABULOUSLY and the meat comes together in triple, or more, easily. I like to do a big batch 5 lbs each meat and then freeze them. (Hey, my hands are gooky with meat, might as well keep going, they don't take long and kids find rolling meatballs to be fun.)
These mighty bites make great meatball subs, go well in spaghetti sauce, or go easily onto a pan next to the pizza rolls when someone has the late night munchies (I won't say who...)
The best soup begins by opening a bottle of wine, pouring yourself a glass, drinking deeply .. and then getting the needed ingredients out of the refrigerator.
fresh, whole chicken
celery
onion
leeks
parsley
bay leaf
Let's begin.
Continue reading "Soup of the Day: Homemade Chicken Leek and Celery Soup" »
